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*10 years on from Boxing Day tsunami, weaknesses remain. BANGKOK, Dec 21- In April 2012, Indonesia's Banda Aceh, the city worst hit by the tsunami that killed at least 226,000 people on Boxing Day ten years ago, received a terrifying reminder of how unprepared it was for the next disaster. But if it had, the damage would have been "worse than 2004, if it was the same...

Pan Pacific Copper, Japan's biggest copper smelter and a unit of JX Holdings Inc, said on Monday it was aiming for a 5- percent increase in its refined copper output for the second half of the financial year that ends March 31, 2015. "We expect sound demand for reconstruction in northeastern Japan which was ravaged by the giant earthquake and tsunami, and for...

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The Tokyo metropolitan government will invest in 6 solar power projects across Japan. Tokyo had set up funds last year to invest in power plants, and these funds will cover 20-30% of the cost of the new 170 million dollar solar power project. Sachiko Kishida reports.

Japan's controversial Hamaoka nuclear plant, shut down after Fukushima, wants to reopen once a 54-ft.-high, mile-long wall is finished. But the plant also sits on a seismic fault line, raising more than a few doubts.

Last year's triple Fukushima disaster – an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis trifecta -- claimed more than 19,000 lives and wreaked utter havoc on the affected area. But the cascading effects of the Fukushima catastrophe may prove to be even more serious and long-lasting.

Most investors can rhyme off a litany of reasons as to why to avoid Japan – high government debt, deflation and a demographic vortex just to name a few. But Japanese equities appear to be emerging as a favorite contrarian play among some experienced investors.

Jacinthe Martin says it took her a few days to reach “panic” status last March, as Japan’s nuclear crisis deepened following its earthquake and tsunami. But the agitated news reports and frantic emails from friends finally pushed her – like many foreign residents of Tokyo – to abandon her adopted city for sanctuary overseas, FT reports.

In the darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed. The NYT reports.

Japan's fishing industry may be about to undergo a complete transformation. One local government is proposing opening coastal waters to big-business investors in what he says is an effort to save the industry. The Christian Science Monitor reports.

More than 20 spots in and around the nation’s capital are contaminated with potentially harmful levels of radioactive cesium, according to a citizens’ group and the respected nuclear research center they worked with. The NYT reports.

The post-tsunami recovery of the Japanese economy is being hampered by the strong yen and the country needs a more concerted effort to get nuclear power stations up and running again, analysts told CNBC Monday.

Rikuzen Takata, a seaside town in Japan's northeastern prefecture of Iwate, was one of the hardest hit communities after the March 11 tragedy. Survivors say the political gridlock in Tokyo is starving them of money they need to rebuild. CNBC's Kaori Enjoji reports.